Paranzino dragged a hand through his hair. “So now what?”
“Now the good news is, we don’t have to search for Rissa,” Brick said. “We’ll wait for the drop location and set up a perimeter wherever that is.”
“He means outside of the perimeter Nicco’s men set up,” Walker clarified.
“Why wouldn’t they just tell us now where they’re going to leave her?”
Jesus fucking Christ. “Because they’re trying to avoid us ambushing them. They’re going to put her in a spot, set up perimeter and wait. Same shit we’d be doing if we had the location. The only good thing is, I’m sure his men aren’t as skilled as Brick when it comes to picking motherfuckers off at a distance. Our perimeter can be broader than theirs.”
“Nobody’s as good as me,” Brick chimed in with a cocky grin.
Mercy almost strained his eyes when he fought rolling them. “Right. They’re gonna have a weapon trained on Rissa. They’re gonna have one on you. I’m not worried about your ass. I’m worried about hers. So, we need to find and take out whoever is covering her. As for you,” Mercy shrugged, “something happens to you, we’ll consider it collateral damage.”
“D hasn’t been paid yet,” Hunter reminded him.
Mercy shrugged again, ignoring Paranzino’s gaping mouth. “I’ll take the financial hit if D gets stiffed.”
“K-Keep me alive and you’ll get paid. Keep Parris alive and you get that bonus.”
At this point he couldn’t give a fuck about the bonus. And he really didn’t care if Paranzino lived or died.
He cared only about Rissa. That was it.
Paranzino was expendable to both Nicco and Mercy. He’d be shitting his pants if he knew that.
Mercy stepped forward and shoved a finger into Paranzino’s face. “When this bullshit is over and if you’re still standing, you’re cutting all ties with Rissa. You got me? She doesn’t need to have your shit splattered all over her.”
“She’s not going to want that.”
“Not up to her. That’s going to be your decision, not hers. And you’re going to be very fucking clear about it with her. Got me?” The last he said inches from Paranzino’s face. So close, that Mercy knew exactly when the man held his breath.
He didn’t breathe again until he answered a few seconds later, “I understand.”
Mercy stepped back and let his gaze slice through the room to the rest of the Shadows. “Gonna need to be ready for close quarters combat. Gotta go in quiet, take them out without tipping off the rest. Brick will set up far enough out to get the complete picture. The rest of us are going to start with a wide perimeter and work our way in, taking out whoever we come across. Don’t think they’ll be a lot of them. At most, the five that Paranzino’s hired help couldn’t locate. Thinking Nicco’s keeping them close. Would like to snag one for questioning to find out Nicco’s location since I doubt he’ll be on scene. But maybe we can convince one of them to talk. Get Nicco located and dispatch him.”
“No mercy,” Walker murmured.
“No fuckin’ mercy,” Mercy agreed.
“’Justice is for those who deserve it; Mercy is for those who don’t,’” Ryder quoted.
“’It is Mercy, not justice or courage or even heroism, that alone can defeat evil,’” Hunter also quoted but a lot louder.
“But you’re not alone, brother,” Brick reassured him.
No, he wasn’t. He had good men at his back. Right now, even with a head injury, he had laser-sharp focus on his mission. Which was to get Rissa safely back. And to deal with any of the motherfuckers who touched her or put her at risk.
No fucking mercy.
Fuck.
Them.
All.
Parris couldn’t stop trembling. Being used as bait for what she could only assume was a deadly trap, she never felt so helpless in her life.
She wanted to scream her head off to warn whoever was coming for her. Michael, most likely. But Mercy, too?
She’d been moved from her former location and now was outside in the open somewhere. The cut on her forehead was throbbing. She was sweating and could hardly breathe because of the gag. Her throat was raw from making noise, but all that effort had been useless since it was muffled.
They had dumped her on the ground somewhere unknown and all she could hear were birds chirping and leaves rustling in the warm, light breeze.
She was not only thirsty and light-headed, they never gave her a chance to relieve herself. She held it until she couldn’t anymore. Now she had sat in her own urine-soaked yoga pants for the last couple hours and her skin burned from it.
She wanted to cry with humiliation, but not only did she have no tears left, mortification over doing something she couldn’t control was the least of her worries.
She hadn’t been tortured or raped. Peeing her pants was nothing compared to that. So, if that and her numb extremities were her only issues, she needed to suck it up and be thankful it wasn’t worse.
However, the sun beating down on her wasn’t helping her dehydration or the headache from her injury and she had no idea how much longer she’d have to sit there until something happened.
Was someone coming to rescue her? Were her captors just waiting for word from their boss to put a gun to the back of her head, too? At least being outside it wouldn’t matter if they made a mess. Was that their plan? They could kill her and leave her there for the animals and birds to pick her bones clean.
Ryan, where are you? Are you alive? Please be alive. Please find me. Please be the hero I so desperately need right now.
Please.
But stay safe. I won’t be able to bear it if anything happens to you.
When did this happen? When did she become attached to a man who kept himself so emotionally unavailable? A man she hadn’t even known for a week?
Light, but rapid footsteps were heading in her direction. She turned her head until she could focus on the sound. Yes, definitely footsteps. They sped up the closer they got.
“Parris,” Michael whispered.
She should be relieved he was there, but instead her anxiety ratcheted up a notch. No, ten notches. Whatever she was waiting for, whatever her captors were waiting for, was about to happen.
She was the trap. Michael the prey.
“I’m going to untie you as quickly as I can, but you’re not to move from this spot until we get the ‘all clear.’”
All clear? That sounded like a term that Mercy and his team would use, not Michael, which meant they were involved. She should feel relieved that they were, but instead it just made her skin crawl with unease.
He worked at the knot on her gag and once it fell free, she sucked in a breath. Seconds later her blindfold was ripped off her head. Overly sensitive to the sudden sunlight, she blinked her eyes until she could focus somewhat on her surroundings. She had lost one contact when those men had knocked her down at the cabin and she had banged her head. Michael was now on his knees behind her sawing jerkily with a knife at the bindings at her wrists.
She tried to speak, but it was almost like she had laryngitis. She struggled to push the words past her desert-dry throat. “What’s happening?”
She jerked forward and gasped in relief when her bound hands became free.
Michael spoke low and fast as he sawed at the rope on her ankles. “They put you in a spot where I couldn’t bring a vehicle. I had to walk in. We’re surrounded. Diesel’s men are out there supposedly taking out any threats.”
Parris glanced around again now that she could see things more clearly. At least with her eye that still had its contact lens. She was in some sort of small clearing in the woods. She wasn’t hearing anything that sounded like “taking out threats.” She heard nothing. She had no idea if that was good or bad.
Either way... “This was a set-up,” she croaked.
“Yes. Mercy said their target was me, not you, of course. This was to get me out in the open and to kill us both, unfortunately. Those men know
what they’re doing.”
“Which men?”
“Diesel’s men. I think whoever Nicco hired are killers, but Diesel assured me that his men were the best. Which was why I used his service in the first place to protect you.” He hesitated. From behind her, his next words sounded bitter and angry. “Though they didn’t.”
“That was my fault, not Ryan’s.”
“None of this is your fault, Parris. It’s mine. I’m sorry I put you in this position. You’re the closest friend I have next to Joshua. And besides him, you’re the only one I trust completely. Regretfully, I’ve messed up our friendship. I’m so sorry this has happened.”
“You didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth,” Parris tried to hiss with annoyance but instead it came out raspy.
Michael moved around on his knees to face her. He grabbed both of her numb hands and began to massage them to help the blood flow. “I’m sorry. We’ll discuss this later… when we’re safe.”
“I just want to get out of here, Michael. We’re sitting ducks.”
“I know, but I was instructed to keep you right here until we’re told otherwise.”
“And what if all of the Shadows get killed? Are we still supposed to sit here and just wait for someone to kill us, too? We’re exposed here, Michael.” Parris bit back a sob at the thought of Mercy or any of his fellow Shadows getting injured or killed, all because of Michael’s bullshit.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
“Why didn’t they at least give you a bullet-proof vest or something?”
“Because a vest doesn’t save you from a head shot. And they also don’t care if I live or die. They’re only doing this to save you.”
“Why would they care about me more than you? You’re the one paying them.”
“I can only guess it has to do with the bonus.”
Oh, that’s right. That fucking bonus. Of course.
Mercy stood after wiping the blood off his knife on the downed man’s clothes to clean it off. He tucked his blade back in its sheath on his hip and pulled out his phone. One down. He was just waiting on word from the rest of his crew.
His phone was set to silent, so he hit the power button and checked his texts.
Ryder had sent out a group text to all of them, as well as to Diesel, with a photo of the guy he also took out with his knife.
Steel had sent a picture of another guy on the ground with what looked like an unnatural twist to his neck. Steel had the strength to snap a man’s neck efficiently and quietly. He had trained the rest of them to do so, but no one did it as well as him. And it wasn’t like they got a lot of practice with it.
Brick sent a selfie which included a grin and a thumbs up as he cradled his MK-11 like it was a baby. He probably read his rifle bedtime stories and kissed it goodnight.
The good news was, four threats were now disabled.
If Nicco wasn’t among them, they needed to keep one alive to find out where that fucker was.
He texted back, Target?
Paranzino had showed them a picture of the trafficker. But Hunter had dug up the fucker’s mugshot, too, so they’d have a better idea of what the man looked like.
All answering texts returned with a negative.
Unfortunately, the dead guy at Mercy’s feet wasn’t Nicco, either.
However, he hadn’t heard from Walker yet, so there was hope that he was either dealing with the head honcho himself or getting one of Nicco’s heavies to talk.
Mercy had given his target two chances to tell him Nicco’s location. When he didn’t, Mercy took the appropriate action.
Of course, Brick hadn’t gotten close enough to question any target in his sight.
Fuck. Mercy wanted Nicco so badly he could taste it. He needed to remove the head of that organization, otherwise, he’d continue to be a threat to Rissa. The man would just hire more muscle to get the job done. And hired guns were a dime a dozen.
Apparently Nicco didn’t pay much for his labor since, so far, they’d been easy to take out. Not one of them had proved to be a challenge by the looks of the photos he’d seen.
As long as they heard from Walker. Since they haven’t, he was getting concerned.
Mercy sent out another group text: W’s 20?
No eyes, came in from Brick. Gonna move south n look.
Headn North til X paths w/ B, came from Hunter.
He needed to check on Rissa and let the rest of the guys search for Walker and whoever Walker had come across. He texted the order: R & S spread out. Report back ASAP. Headn in.
He still wanted to know where Nicco was. But even if the fucker got on a plane back to Vegas while he let his hired help stay behind to get rid of the two thorns in his side, Mercy had no problem catching a ride back on Paranzino’s private jet to finish him off.
Rissa was not safe until Nicco was no longer breathing. She probably wasn’t safe until she severed her friendship with Paranzino. Because there was no way in hell the casino mogul was cleaning up his act.
Nicco was only one battle in a struggle over power and wealth in that city full of greed and sin. And the taste of money was too addicting for a man like Paranzino to change his ways.
He took one last glance down at the gaping wound across the dead man’s neck. They needed to decide what to do with the bodies. They couldn’t leave trash behind.
Give a hoot, don’t fucking pollute.
And Nicco’s men were nothing but trash that needed to be properly disposed of.
Chapter Sixteen
Mercy had set his phone from silent to vibrate and it was doing just that in his palm as he picked his way through the thick brush to get to where Rissa was. He paused to read the text.
It was from Ryder. W got answer. Nicco w8n 4 word A-hole’s dead. Sittn n a rental 3 klicks North ready 2 head 2 airport. Keepn last 1 alive as insurance. If no witnesses, B’s takn out Nicco from a distance. 10-4?
Finally fucking good news. He texted 10-4 back.
They’d all have to circle back around and clean up the mess they made in the woods. But not until Brick drilled a hole through Nicco’s melon first.
It would be better if the rental didn’t get messy because if it did, they’d have to get rid of that, too, without a trace. One more headache to deal with. But he’d leave it to the rest of his team to decide how to handle Nicco.
Mess. No Mess. He didn’t give a fuck.
One thing was for sure, this was all going to cost Paranzino. More than that fucking bonus.
He continued carefully trudging through the underbrush until he saw the clearing. Paranzino was sitting on the ground, his arms wrapped around Rissa. And that right there made Mercy’s trigger finger twitch.
He needed to keep his patience. He needed to get Rissa somewhere safe and make sure she was okay. Then he needed to get back to help clean up as soon as he could. This section of woods was remote, but last thing any of them needed was a Boy Scout troop out on some damn hike to trip over a few dead bodies.
Mercy wondered what badge they’d earn for that.
As he strode through the clearing, his gaze was locked on Rissa. Her face was streaked with dry tears and blood, her clothes were dirty, and she sat in a strange position on the ground. There was also a cut on her forehead above her eye. Had they violated her?
His heart began to race as he got closer. He wanted to ask her fifty questions but knew she might be in a fragile state, so he didn’t want to push it. He’d get his answers. Again, he just needed to keep his patience.
Paranzino rose to his feet. “She can’t stand. Her circulation was cut off for too long.”
Mercy’s head twisted toward the other man. The reason Rissa was on the ground at that very moment. “Shut the fuck up,” he growled. Then before he could stop his knee-jerk reaction, his right fist shot out and landed square in the center of Paranzino’s face. The man’s nose blossomed under his fist, and blood splattered, causing blowback on both him and Rissa, but it was eithe
r punch the asshole or slice his throat in front of her.
The last would have to wait. Rissa had been through enough.
Paranzino had dropped to the ground with the impact and had both hands covering his nose as he whimpered and writhed around. Mercy was a cunt-hair close to spitting on the other man for good measure.
Mercy jabbed a finger at him and snarled, “Got shit to say and you’re just gonna fucking listen. Only answer when I ask a fucking question.” He didn’t wait for Paranzino’s response because he wasn’t going to waste time. He needed to get Rissa out of there, but he wanted some assurances first. “You want Nicco out of the game? If so, you’re paying Rissa a fucking million for pain and suffering, and you’re not only paying my bonus, but a bonus to each of my guys for this bullshit. Otherwise, we’re letting him walk and we’ll let the best man win. With Rissa safe, I couldn’t give a fuck if your whole business implodes.”
Nicco was being disposed of no matter how Paranzino answered, but the man didn’t need to know that. Right now, Nicco’s life was a bargaining chip for Rissa to be compensated for the shit she’d been through. Which he didn’t even know the extent of yet. However, besides the slice above her eye, she wasn’t bloody or bruised anywhere else from what he could see. Her clothes, though dirty and disheveled, were in place and not torn. And for the most part she looked like she was keeping her shit together.
He was proud of her.
“Will it come back to me?” came the question through bloodied fingers.
Mercy’s gaze slid back to the asshole. Only if they set it up to come back to Paranzino, which wouldn’t be a bad idea. But if the authorities took him into custody for murder, the man would probably spill everything. Then Mercy would regret not killing him immediately by severing his windpipe. “No. But you know the deal.”
Guts & Glory: Mercy (In the Shadows Security Book 1) Page 18